EU Fossil Fuel Import Costs From Hormuz Crisis Exceed Thirty Billion Euros

Paying more for the same molecules

EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen told journalists in Brussels that since the outbreak of the Middle East conflict, European Union member states had already spent over thirty billion euros more on fossil fuel imports without receiving any additional supply. His warning echoed concerns raised by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who told the European Parliament in April that the bloc was losing nearly five hundred million euros a day as the Iran war drove up fossil fuel costs.

Von der Leyen said that in just sixty days of conflict, the EU's bill for fossil fuel imports had increased by over twenty-seven billion euros without a single molecule of additional energy. The core problem is not a physical shortage in Europe — the continent is not heavily dependent on gas transiting Hormuz — but the global price surge that makes every barrel and every cubic metre of LNG more expensive regardless of origin.

Gas prices up forty percent since February

European gas prices rose by roughly forty percent since the war began on February 28, reaching about forty-six euros per megawatt-hour by May 2026. LNG prices jumped sixty percent in the Atlantic basin and seventy-five percent in the Pacific, while diesel and petrol prices rose by fifty-nine percent globally. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz dropped sharply amid attacks on commercial vessels by the IRGC and a US blockade of Iranian ports.

The waterway between Iran and the United Arab Emirates normally carries a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas. Its effective closure has forced rerouting, raised insurance premiums, and added transport costs even for cargoes that never transited the strait.

CREA analysis: seventy-eight billion dollars gross

Independent analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air covering March through August 2026 found that the European Union faced the highest gross additional fossil fuel import cost of any region, at seventy-eight billion US dollars, with a net cost of fifty-four billion after export earnings. The Netherlands, Italy, France, and Spain alone absorbed nearly forty-one billion euros in extra costs without importing any new volumes — the price surge alone drove the increase.

Across a hundred and seventy countries examined, a hundred and thirty-four paid more for diesel than markets had anticipated before the war. Euronews reported that clean power capacity installed in the EU since 2020 saved importing countries thirty-six billion euros in fossil fuel purchases during the first five months of the crisis — evidence that the energy transition provides partial insulation, but not enough to offset the shock.

Calls for a fossil fuel exit plan

Climate Action Network Europe and allied groups have urged von der Leyen to deliver a fossil fuel exit plan during her September State of the Union address. The signatories argue that Europe is paying twice for fossil fuel dependence: first through higher energy costs, then through escalating climate damage.

Diplomatic efforts to reopen Hormuz continue, with Iran and Oman proposing a temporary shipping corridor and Qatar pushing for renewed US-Iran talks. For Brussels, the CREA report suggests the long-term answer lies in reducing demand rather than securing alternative supply routes — but the immediate political pressure is fiscal, as governments face voter anger over heating bills and transport costs heading into winter.